---
title: 'Head of Talent at Pilgrim'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-talent-pilgrim-redwood-city-147z2t8vaqgy'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-14'
---

# Head of Talent at Pilgrim

- **Company:** Pilgrim
- **Location:** Redwood City, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-09-23
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-14
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/pilgrim/83bb0389-0bac-44fa-8fce-cd8e1e1b8fe5

## Job description

About Pilgrim: Pilgrim is building America’s biology prime - engineering, manufacturing, and deploying advanced biotechnology for defense and national security. Our primary platform, ARGUS, is a fully autonomous system for detecting biological threats in near real time, from naturally occurring pathogens to engineered agents. We engineer hardware for biology, turning breakthrough science into fielded capabilities. Based in Redwood City, our team brings together mechanical and electrical engineering, chemistry, and biology under one roof to deliver critical technologies to the people who need them. Pilgrim has raised over $30 million to date and is backed by Peter Thiel, Brian Armstrong, Fred Ehrsam, Dylan Field, and Bryan Johnson, alongside Buckley Ventures, Conviction, Cantos, and others. About the Role: As Head of Talent at Pilgrim, you will direct the hiring of engineers, scientists, and operators who will deploy critical biotechnology for the nation. You will own recruiting end to end across the company, defining roles, designing interview processes, identifying effective sourcing channels, assessing candidates, and onboarding new hires. Ultimately, there are people who should be working at Pilgrim but are not. Your job is to find them. Responsibilities:

- Source, screen, and assess candidates across engineering, science, operations, and other critical functions.
- Build outbound and inbound recruiting channels. Proactively identify and engage exceptional candidates.
- Map the technical communities and undiscovered networks where Pilgrim's best candidates come from, and build trusted paths into them.
- Build relationships with labs, founders, operators, professors, and others who know where top talent is hiding.
- Work closely with the founding team to define role requirements, translate them into search criteria, and design interview processes that connect candidates with the right internal experts.
- Run the full process, from first contact through interviews, pilot, references, offer, and close.
- Own the recruiting operating system including the ATS, internal support, external recruiters, sourcing workflows, interview processes, and pipeline reporting.
- Build AI-enabled recruiting tools and workflows that expand sourcing reach and increase efficiency.

Qualifications:

- Prior experience supporting or leading technical recruiting.
- A track record of finding exceptional candidates in places where standard recruiting channels do not work well.
- Demonstrated ability to distinguish truly world-class individuals from merely competent ones and to quickly discern who is and is not a fit.
- Experience using an ATS, such as Ashby or Greenhouse, along with recruiting tools like Attio, Juicebox, Claude, and similar platforms.
- Experience planning and running communities, sponsored events, technical gatherings, university sessions, dinners, or other events that bring relevant people into the company’s orbit.

Pilgrim is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Certain positions require access to export-controlled information and are limited to U.S. Persons as defined by applicable export control regulations.

## About Pilgrim

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Pilgrim develops, validates, and deploys battlefield-ready biotechnology solutions to enhance the resilience and capabilities of military personnel.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage)
- **Headquarters**: Redwood City, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2023
- **Founders**: Not publicly disclosed (company was started by a 21-year-old founder, per Business Insider, but name not listed in available sources)

## Core Business
- Primary industry: Defense and Space Manufacturing / Military Biotechnology
- Target customers: U.S. Department of Defense, allied militaries, and national security agencies (B2G)
- Mission: "Where biology meets the battlefield" — building the warfighter of tomorrow by transforming breakthrough science into decisive capabilities for those who operate at the edge.

## Products & Services
- **[Kingsfoil](https://pilgrimlabs.com/)**: A hemostatic dressing that seals wounds and promotes healing – designed for battlefield and civilian use. (Medical device)
- **[Voyager](https://pilgrimlabs.com/)**: An inhaled mist intended to neutralize chemical threats, protecting warfighters from chemical warfare agents. (Biotechnology product)
- **[ARGUS](https://pilgrimlabs.com/)**: A surveillance platform for detecting biological and chemical hazards in high-risk environments. (Monitoring / detection system)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation / Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total funding of **$7.55 million**, including a $4.3 million Seed round (March 2025) and a $3.2 million Pre-Seed round (March 2025), plus an earlier Angel round (November 2023)
- **Notable Investors**: Cantos (Seed lead), Thiel Capital, Refactor, and others
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - Headcount grew 50% year-over-year (from ~2 to 4 employees as of mid-2025)
  - 8 open positions posted on hiring platforms, indicating aggressive expansion
  - Featured in Business Insider (Aug 2025) for founder’s high-risk demonstration to secure funding

## Competitive Advantages
- First-mover focusing purely on **battlefield-ready biotechnology** for human performance and protection
- **Backed by prominent defense/tech investors** (Peter Thiel, Cantos, Refactor) lending credibility and network
- **Small, agile team** enables rapid prototyping and deployment of novel solutions
- Product pipeline addresses urgent, unmet needs (hemostatic control, chemical neutralization, bio-threat detection)

## Strategic Focus
- Move from concept to field-deployable products: Kingsfoil, Voyager, and ARGUS are in validation and testing phases
- Scale manufacturing and expand government contracts
- Continue building a talent-dense engineering and biotech team
- Extend dual-use applications (military and civilian emergency medicine)

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-driven culture** with direct impact on national security and warfighter survivability
- **Small, early-stage company** (currently 4 employees) offering outsized responsibility and the chance to shape product direction
- **In-office presence** in Redwood City, CA; some hybrid roles available (e.g., Biomedical Engineer on Built In)
- **Recent funding** provides runway and signals investor confidence
- **Exciting technical challenges** spanning electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, biomedical engineering, and industrial design – as seen in open roles

## Sources
1. [pilgrimlabs.com](https://pilgrimlabs.com/)
2. [LinkedIn – Pilgrim](https://www.linkedin.com/company/pilgrimlabs)
3. [Built In – Pilgrim](https://builtin.com/company/pilgrim)
4. [VentureRadar – Pilgrim, Inc.](https://www.ventureradar.com/organisation/Pilgrim,%20Inc_%5Bdot%5D_/f199410e-2af6-4f52-af75-4125b4970d99)
5. [Black Flag Job Board – Pilgrim](https://www.blackflag.vc/hiring/pilgrim)

## Other roles at Pilgrim

- [Systems Integration Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/systems-integration-engineer-pilgrim-redwood-city-ya39bvqezt3q) — Redwood City, CA
- [Research Associate](https://feeny.ai/job/research-associate-pilgrim-redwood-city-zdbrbxs4n9hj) — Redwood City, CA
- [Molecular Biologist](https://feeny.ai/job/molecular-biologist-pilgrim-redwood-city-1hvbws4y67cy) — Redwood City, CA
- [Bioinformatics Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/bioinformatics-engineer-pilgrim-redwood-city-e9pp1ha1812b) — Redwood City, CA
- [Pathfinder](https://feeny.ai/job/pathfinder-pilgrim-redwood-city-9ynd0mh2qcmq) — Redwood City, CA / Washington, DC
- [Supply Chain Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/supply-chain-manager-pilgrim-redwood-city-80yrw79n5229) — Redwood City, CA
- [Executive Assistant](https://feeny.ai/job/executive-assistant-pilgrim-redwood-city-pb2r1zb1r95j) — Redwood City, CA
- [Government Relations Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/government-relations-lead-pilgrim-washington-mnh9nm8c97aw) — Washington, DC
- [Government Ops Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/government-ops-lead-pilgrim-redwood-city-hwv8wv33p07q) — Redwood City, CA / Washington, DC
- [Facilities Director](https://feeny.ai/job/facilities-director-pilgrim-redwood-city-ampmfgxsxhf2) — Redwood City, CA